The Perfect TV Cop Who Murdered His Wife In Real Life, As His Sons Watched!

The perfect TV cop, Michael Jace, who starred in the drama series, The Shield, was sentenced to 40 years to life for murdering his wife of 11 years on May 19th, 2014. He shot her three times, in front of their two young boys! ages 8 and 5!

On the TV series, Michael played the good cop. He was an upstanding, law-abiding and professional man who always insisted on playing by the rules.

The series was good to Michael and his wife, April, for several years. But, when the show was done and Michael had difficulty gaining more acting roles, the good guy persona slowly slipped away and his life took a downward turn.

In 2011, Michael’s finances were in poor shape and he was forced to file bankruptcy. He was swimming in debt over his head and his marriage was beginning to fall apart. He turned to alcohol to bury the pain. But that just made things worse. The battles raged on continuously between the couple.

Then, in May of 2014, something snapped. Micheal went off the deep end.

April had taken the boys to a youth baseball game that day and sat sideline to cheer them on. But Michael made it virtually impossible to enjoy the event as he text bombed her for hours, accusing her of having an affair.

pic credit – mirror

She knew that Michael had been drinking heavily that day and so, despite the fact that she denied any affair, he was relentless in his accusations. She finally told him she was afraid to come home with the kids, fearing that in his drunken state there would be yet another war, with the usual throwing and breaking of things and the screaming of accusations of infidelity in front of the children. She was afraid to come to the house and she texted him as much.

Michael texted back that he had left the house and would not be there. So April, believing what he said, returned home after the game with her boys. Once inside the house, April realized that Michael was still there and that he had lied about leaving. A fight broke out between and Michael drug April into the hallway. He pointed a gun at her as the boys watched, screaming and crying for their mother.

“You like to run so much. Why don’t you try running to heaven?” he said. Then he shot her three times!

After the initial adrenaline rush subsided, Michael called the authorities and reported that he had just shot his wife. He next called his father-in-law and told him to gather the boys because he had just shot their mother.

The police and emergency squads arrived quickly, but April was pronounced dead at the scene.

Michael admitted shooting April, but added that he only intended on hurting her. He never meant for her to die. He said he was just really angry with her. He wanted to just shoot her in the legs. (She was a runner that at times competed in athletic competitions.) But she fought him and he shot her in the back! (sounds like she was running away to me) But anyway…

He was charged with murder and held on a $2 million bail.

At the trial his defense attorney worked to get the charge changed to voluntary manslaughter, calling it a crime of passion. He said that he (Michael) had actually intended on using the gun on himself in the end.